Those who built the Universe!

Okay, so maybe my "Builder Race" didn't build the universe, that's too far fetched, but they certainly made a lot of planets habitable.

Regardless of their prominence in the plot, what more can be said about the Builder Race? What sort of creatures are they?

As with most of these questions, I had to struggle with what to make the Builder Race. Bugs are done in my books, and the Stargate idea of truly Human ancients doesn't groove with me.
I finally settled on reptoid, most because I had created the draconic Shivasii as a slave race to the Old Builders. I guess to me it stood to reason that the Builders would create their slaves in their own image, a very self-centred way to make slaves, but it works for me. The Shivasii, then, are everything their Masters were not. Where the Shivasii are strong and lacking any real creativity or intellect, the Builders were lithe and brilliant. It does, however, demand that more worlds are aware of a reptoid race similar or identical to the Shivasii. That, however, doesn't bother me.

The other reason I picked a reptilian form was that, simply put, reptiles got bigger, better, and more bad ass sooner on Earth than mammals did. Really, they came first, mammals came later. If we assume a similar evolutionary track somewhere else (and in an infinite universe, there are infinite worlds that went much like Earth did) then we can say - in the interests of fiction - that somewhere along the lines a reptilian species evolved to heights greater than humans. And with that extra time (lets say 65 million years) what magnificent things could they do?

Of course, with a 65 million year head start, they should rule known space, right? Then again, its a long time to grow, expand, succeed and then fall to the plights that all empires fall to. This Builder Race could have collapsed in on itself ten million years ago, and what's left is a thriving slave population. It could have happened even more recently too. Who knows (not even I know!).

Focusing so much on the Builders, however, changes the Shivasii for me. The original approach to the Shivasii gave them a ruling council of the smartest members, which now, sadly, needs to be redesigned. Quite simply, I think the Builders would have designed a slave quite immune to mutation, and the possibility for smart Shivasii goes down. I might keep the system, but make this Ruling Council smaller, assuming only a few such smart Shivasii arise in a generation.
It also made me start thinking of using the Shivasii more int he story. Its why, earlier, I had asked myself about how the Boondis Insurgency would look upon Shivasii slaves.
If we assume the Shivasii were bred to work, and to be relatively docile under their masters, then I had to ask how long those sorts of traits might last. After millions of years we'd want to believe they have been bred out, but then again, I've figured the advanced bio-engineering might negate some mutation (maybe via nanites). So I decided to split the difference, making the majority of the Shivasii still quite docile. They have an island to themselves, which is generally where the "rebel" Shivasii stay. Really, at this point, the entire race needs to be re-written. Painful, but worth it for a great idea.

Many of the old Shivasii traits I wrote about before, the warrior pride, the xenophobia, all that will probably remain in one shape or form on the Island. It just might be formulated differently.

Thanks for reading again, my goal of 20 posts in 20 days is fast becoming a reality, and I really am getting some great ideas together. Its all you, my readers, its all you.